The Heat of the Day

Book Description

In The Heat of the Day, Elizabeth Bowen brilliantly recreates the tense and dangerous atmosphere of London during the bombing raids of World War II.

Many people have fled the city, and those who stayed behind find themselves thrown together in an odd intimacy born of crisis. Stella Rodney is one of those who chose to stay. But for her, the sense of impending catastrophe becomes acutely personal when she discovers that her lover, Robert, is suspected of selling secrets to the enemy, and that the man who is following him wants Stella herself as the price of his silence. Caught between these two men, not sure whom to believe, Stella finds her world crumbling as she learns how little we can truly know of those around us.

Customer Reviews:

Intriguing but difficult.......2007-05-22

Elizabeth Bowen was new to me, but as she appears in "1001 Books To Read Before You Die" several times, I gave it a try. "Heat of the Day" is far from a conventional novel; it is circumspect, indirect and suggestive rather than bold. The story takes place in war time London, where the usual constraints of propriety have loosened. Stella and her lover Robert exist in a vacuum; important wartime jobs are hinted at but never revealed. Stella is approached by the mysterious Harrison, who tells her Robert is a spy. If she tells this to Robert, Harrison warns, his behavior will change, which will immediately confirm the truth of what Harrison is saying. The price for Robert's safety is Stella herself, but we don't really know how Harrison knows her or why he has fallen in love with her. It's a trap, and secretely Stella must suspect there's something to what Harrison says, because she doesn't reveal the secret to Robert, but tries to hold off Harrison for several months. Faced with the truth, however, Stella gives in, only for Harrison to discover that he hasn't gotten what he wants anyway.

Wartime London is portrayed in a dreamy surreal way, most notably through Louie, the not-too-bright wife of a soldier. Adrift in a transitory world, where men come and go on their way to war, she accidently intrudes on Stella and Harrison in their ultimate confrontation, and her inability to understand what is happening almost mirrors the reader's own puzzlement. It's really through Louie that we get the greatest sense of how very unreal life was in London in those dark days.

Bowen's style is difficult, and if you're looking for plot, look elsewhere. Bowen's genteel upper classes, the Stellas, the Roberts and his family, are under siege, from the Harrisons and Louies of the world as much as from the war. Ironically, Louie is the real survivor. This isn't an easy read, but Bowen is a master at suggesting atmosphere, mystery, and even menace in a very subtle way.

Style and secrets.......2007-04-22

"Imagine a Graham Greene thriller projected through the sensibility of Virginia Woolf." The ATLANTIC MONTHLY comment printed on the cover sums the novel up perfectly. The Woolf element is the sensitive study of personality, especially that of Stella Rodney, a fortyish divorcée living in London at the time of the Blitz. Greene could well have provided the character of the sinister Harrison, who intrudes into Stella's life with the suggestion that her lover, Robert Kelway, might be a spy. But the two elements do not easily coexist. The psychological concerns hold up the story, which proceeds in episodes rather than linearly; its beginning is implausible in terms of narrative, and its ending in terms of character. But Bowen does look quite deeply into the bonds between friends, families, and lovers, and the many secrets we keep from one another and even from ourselves.

Let me amplify this with a few specifics. If rating my immediate enjoyment of this particular book, I would have given it three stars rather than four, but I find it growing on me as I write. I have certainly admired the other three Bowens that I have read (THE LAST SEPTEMBER, THE HOUSE IN PARIS, and THE DEATH OF THE HEART), all of which feature much younger protagonists. She is a polished stylist, and her powers of description are extraordinary, as for instance in setting the stage for the late-summer open-air concert which opens this novel. She can also come up with striking stage-directions such as: "Tearless, she made a wailing movement of the arms above her head." In terms of the emotional content of the larger scene, this is unexpected but perfect. Or take the sentence with which the chapter [15] virtually opens: "Not a sign, not a sound, not a movement from where she at a distance from him lay, exhausted by having given birth to the question." Reread, pondered, and read again, this too is perfect; the narrative indirection and the combination of distance with closeness are the entire point of the episode -- but it is annoying that you have first to get through the artifice of the inversion of "at a distance from him lay" and to figure out what the question must have been that she asked. I suspect that this novel would continue to reveal riches on rereading, and so am glad to give Bowen the benefit of the doubt. But I fear that the ATLANTIC review may ultimately do her a disservice, and her choice of the Greene-like theme encourages a kind of first reading very different from what the author does best.

Lovely cover, dull story.......2004-01-30

I consider myself a reader of some discernment, but this book was among the most difficult to enjoy or to offer any reason to go beyond the 160 pages that I managed to muddle through.

First, it seemed very dated and the pages and pages of descriptions of minutiae broken up by dialogue every ten pages or so, it seemed, were real barriers to getting an understanding of the book. Also, the characters were so bloodless and chilly and the tone so remote that it was impossible to identify with or like these characters. When I arrived at page 160 and Louie was mentioned, a scramble ensued to figure out who the heck she was.

We read this for our book club. We have four English teachers in the group, several librarians and other educated people and to a person, we loathed this book. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone and can't see why it deserved renewed attention all these many years later.

Private hazards of war.......2003-11-18

One sign of a good book is that it continues to pursue you after you have read the last page and put it down. First of all, I liked the switches of scene from war-torn London to the tranquil but disheartened countryside. We are reminded of the constraints of the blackout, ridiculous absence of identifying place-names on train journeys, confusing to friend and foe alike, and the changing progress and evolution of the war as the years go by. There is a difference between country life in England (Robert's family rattling around in a Victorian hulk they cannot decide what they want to do with), and in neutral Ireland (Roderick's inheritance, Mount Morris, where basic items are in short supply but there will be a sound future for it after the war). It is the story of a woman's gradual acceptance and understanding of an intolerable, heart-breaking situation, and there are some extraordinary vivid scenes that stay with you. The first chapter introduces us to the villain, Harrison, lost in thought while listening to the band in the park; it is not clear why he is so self-absorbed, or why is he so rude to the young woman in the next seat who is only striking up a casual conversation. The second chapter introduces the heroine and sets out the complexities of her ensuing dilemma and Harrison's place in it.

This Harrison is a bit of a riddle and it's hard to be convinced by his sudden obsession with Stella without finding him somewhat abnormal. His scenes with Stella are understated and only when you mull them over do you realize how terrible they are, how shocking are the points he is making, the game he is playing. Before we have met Robert we have no way to assess Stella's reaction; is she going to be persuaded to casually drop him and take up with Harrison? How deep does their relationship go?

Soon we find out that their relationship is central, that they are everything to each other, so profoundly attuned that they share each other's thoughts. Stella's relationship with her son Roderick is also superbly drawn; his masterful taking over of his Irish inheritance makes his army life seem juvenile and irrelevant; Mount Morris gives his life meaning. In contrast to these three central figures we have the complex orneriness of Harrison, turning up again and again and always introducing some unbearable tension, and Robert's powerful mother and sister, full of incoherent fuss, on whom Stella will "make no impression whatsoever," as Robert predicts. The characters are wonderfully interesting and individual. There is another important scene at the funeral of Cousin Francis where Stella meets Harrison for the first time and learns to everyone's surprise that Roderick is Francis' heir. Her late husband's family keep her at an icy distance.

Two women living in the same apartment building make friends, share each other's woes and their lives lightly brush Stella's. They introduce a lighter note, or at least diffuse tension from the main protagonists, coming from another social stratum in the city in wartime.

What would lead a highly intelligent, educated, privileged man to become a traitor to his country? Climactic is the explanation Robert gives for his support of the other side, born of his disillusion with Dunkirk and need to envision a meaningful future at the end of the war. Does Stella accept it? The final chapter, like the first, shows us Louie, the aimless, artless girl at the band-stand, now at the end of the war having lost her husband but gained a child of her own, returning to live in the ravaged seaside town where she spent her childhood.

An Excellent Writer With A Plot That Plods!.......2003-08-28

"Imagine a Graham Greene thriller projected through the sensibility of Virginia Woolfe." When I read this Atlantic Monthly blurb on Elizabeth Bowen's "The Heat Of The Day," I thought, this is a book for me. It took me 200 pages before I became involved in the novel. I did not put it down earlier, because I must admit, objectively, that Elizabeth Bowen's writing style is elegant, and at times poetic. I was curious to learn what she wanted to say through the novel's characters and plot. However she does take forever to say something. Her dialogue is often inane, and her unnecessary descriptions slow the storyline unbearably. I am not a reader who requires a book to be plot driven, but Ms. Bowen's meanderings are excessive.

One of the book's reviewers, V.S. Pritchett, writes, "Out of the plainest things - the drawing of a curtain - she can make something electric and urgent." I beg to disagree with Mr. Pritchett, but there is absolutely nothing electric, in this case, about a full page description of a woman drawing the curtains and looking out the window. It is downright tedious. After a long, rather innocuous conversation with her son, our heroine Stella Rodney, puts her cigarette out in the ashtray. After a pause, her son says, "I suppose you'll need the wastebasket." That was the conversation's high point.

The story takes us to wartorn London, about midway through WWII. Stella Rodney, an attractive, intelligent woman in her 40s, is divorced with a son in the Army. Ms. Bowen portrays the tension and eeriness of a city, and its inhabitants, stressed by years of war and bombardment. Stella keeps running into a strange man, Harrison, who first introduces himself to her at her cousin's funeral. The meeting is not accidental. Apparently Harrison is working for one of England's secret services. He informs her that her lover, Robert, is an enemy spy. Harrison wants her to stop seeing Robert, and begin a relationship with him. He has fallen in love with her, somewhat quickly, and based on very little time together. I would call him obsessed, in a low-keyed manner. Stella's willingness to begin an affair with Harrison, is the price she will have to pay for protecting the man she loves from arrest. During the ensuing months, while she ponders and processes this information, she spends time with her son, goes with Robert to visit his family in their country estate, and makes a trip to Ireland to see about her son's inheritance. I suppose it is not the outcome of Stella's decision that is important, but her thoughts and feelings along the way.

Again, objectively, I would have to say that for some this may be a good novel. I do enjoy and appreciate subtlity, but Ms. Bowen's writing is too subtle for my taste.
JANA

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In the Heat of the Day (Caribbean Writers Series)
Michael Anthony
Manufacturer: Heinemann
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World

ASIN: 0435989448

Book Description

Tension and action intensify this novel, which is based on the historical facts surrounding Trinidad's Water Riots on March 23, 1903.

One Day in the Desert (Trophy Chapter Book)

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A dramatic look into an otherworldly environment
Introducing young readers to the desert world
This book was not that great

One Day in the Desert (Trophy Chapter Book)
Jean Craighead George
Manufacturer: HarperTrophy
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0064420388

Book Description

`A wounded mountain lion moves from his mountain habitat to a Papago Indian hut in Arizona's Sonoran desert during a record-breaking July day. All creation adapts to the blistering heat until a cloudburst causes a flash flood. With a measured yet vivid style, this introduction to desert ecology makes a memorable impact." —SLJ.

Customer Reviews:

A dramatic look into an otherworldly environment.......2001-04-19

Naturalist Jean Craighead George introduces us to the world of the mountain lion, the road runner, the cactus, the kangaroo rat, the ringtailed cat, the swift fox, the elf owl, the coyote, and the bombadier beetle in this book as she did wolves and caribou in JULIE OF THE WOLVES and peregrine falcons in MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN. A young Papago Indian girl named Bird Wing and her mother live in Arizona's Sonoran Desert. This usually arid place is about to fall victim to a terrible thunderstorm and a flash flood. Bird Wing and all the animals of the desert struggle to find shelter before the flood. Some will survive--and some will not. This is a beautiful story about the close connection between human beings and all living things, and the unpredictable ways of nature. Other books in the ONE DAY series that include exciting natural disasters are ONE DAY IN THE ALPINE TUNDRA and ONE DAY IN THE PRAIRIE. There is also the fascinating ONE DAY IN THE WOODS and ONE DAY IN THE TROPICAL RAIN FOREST. And don't forget Jean Craighead George's 80+ stories about nature, like The Thirteen Moons series and THERE'S AN OWL IN THE SHOWER.

Introducing young readers to the desert world.......2000-02-25

Yet another wonderful book by an author very much in tune with nature and ecological concerns. She teaches while she entertains. Having lived in the region portrayed in this book, it became a gift to young friends back in Minnesota to introduce them to a COMPLETELY different world. Yielded fun discussion and comparison. They wondered at and enjoyed it very much!

This book was not that great.......1999-10-11

As I was reading this book it did't tell me that much about anything except that this did this and that did that. If I were you I would not buy this book. Although it is my opinion on the book, you might really like it.

Amanda Pig and the Really Hot Day (Puffin Easy-to-Read)

Average customer rating:

A Strong Entry in a Good Series
A Great Summer Read for your Oliver and Amanda Fan
Bland bland bland... and sexist too
"Even my hair ribbons are hot"

Amanda Pig and the Really Hot Day (Puffin Easy-to-Read)
Jean Van Leeuwen
Manufacturer: Puffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0142407755
Release Date: 2007-07-19

Book Description

It is the hottest day of the summer, and poor Amanda pig is as droopy as the plants in her father's garden. Her knees are hot, her nose is hot, even her hair ribbons are hot! How will this little pig stay cool? it is not easy, but plucky Amanda is determined to beat the heat. with four funny chapters filled with adorable illustrations, this story will have readers giggling over Amanda's muggyday woes and her quest to keep cool.

Customer Reviews:

A Strong Entry in a Good Series.......2007-08-12

The author has a flair for understanding how kids think and talk and some of the real conflicts they experience. I am married to a kindergarten teacher who has endorsed these books heartily because of the way they connect to a child's psychological reality in accessible, even poetic language. My daughter loves the books, but does not take them from that girls must play certain roles while boys play others. She loves the family dynamics and the creative imaginations of both Oliver and Amanda.

I understand that one of the reviewers here has a reading of this book as sexist. I'm not going to comment on that specifically, but I will note that this is one of a series of fifteen or sixteen books, and one can gain a fuller picture of the family dynamics from reading others in the series. It should be remembered that Oliver is older than Amanda and that is an ongoing conflict in the books--a benign one, but a conflict nonetheless, as Amanda wants to play with him and is sometimes rebuffed, which is a realistic scenario.

At least the mom in these books does express real emotions from time to time (frustration when her kids drive her crazy). Admittedly the dad does mostly "dad" stuff (though he does occasionally gently help the siblings resolve differences, so he's not just a macho type). As a dad I find that occasionally disappointing, but I think Ms. Van Leuwen and her two illustrators do a good job of bringing out the real feelings of little ones in a positive way.

And almost every book in the Amanda/Oliver series seems to me to have a chapter where the writing is very strong and almost beautiful. In this book, I love the final chapter when they wait for a breeze; it's wonderful to feel that you're giving your child the gift of literature, giving much more than a picture book or something that merely entertains, and these books really do have a quality of writing that transcends what you find in most kid lit.

I also strongly recommend Tales of Oliver Pig (1/2), Tales of Amanda Pig (1/2), and Amanda Pig Schoolgirl from this series.

A Great Summer Read for your Oliver and Amanda Fan.......2006-07-10

I don't understand the bad reviews here! My 4-year-old daughter LOVES the Amanda Pig books. They are relevant to her real life experiences so she can relate to all of the stories. Best of all, I even enjoy reading them! The language is easy to understand, but does offer some new ideas/vocabulary. Try this series for your preschooler!

Bland bland bland... and sexist too.......2006-05-09

In Amanda Pig and the Really Hot Day, author Jean VanLeeuwer describes a very hot day in the life of Amanda Pig and her family through four simple but linked tales. The text is easy to understand, making this book ideal for younger readers, but is extremely generic, showing nothing special, realistic, or particularly interesting about the Pig family.

In addition, some parents may be concerned at the problematic display of unchallenged sexism. In the first story, Amanda Pig is very hot, so she gets a glass of lemonade from her mother and a spray with the garden hose from her father. The childlike innocence of the hose scene aside, early in the book, a fundamental question seems to lure. If it is so hot outside, why are all these pigs wearing long hoop skirts, long sleeves, and denim pants? Perhaps the day would not be so hot if they would just put on some sensible weather-appropriate clothing. In the next story, Amanda Pig wants to join Oliver Pig and the other boys in building a fort and is rebuked because she is a girl, even though her suggestions are intelligent and helpful. Amanda runs to her mother, who makes no attempt to challenge the boys' behavior, or even the very idea that forts are only for boys. Instead she suggests that Amanda call her (female) friend Lollipop and they have a quiet tea party in the shade. When the boys want lemonade, she gives it to them in exchange for a visit inside the fort, even though the boys make it clear that she still cannot help build it because she is a girl. This ending is portrayed as happy and funny, and again, the rampant sexism goes unchallenged. In the third tale, Amanda and Lollipop have a lemonade stand that is unsuccessful because they drink all the lemonade. Thankfully Mrs. Pig is there to save the day with more lemonade as well as cookies, making it clear that Mrs. Pig does not work in any way and leaving the older reader wondering if Mr. Pig has a job either. In the final story, it is too warm for Amanda to sleep inside, so the family sits outside under the stars and waits for a cool breeze... while all wearing long sleeves, long pants, and large skirts. Again the reader might wonder why the family doesn't opt for tank tops and shorts, given the weather.

The illustrations by Ann Schweniger are cartoonish and light, very colorful and clearly designed to appeal to young children. However her drawings show the same unchallenged sexism as the text, and none of the female pigs are shown in pants or shorts. Lollipop seems to wear a jumper with poofy pantaloons, but her outfit is clearly coded female by many ruffles. Other then the bright color, little attempt is made to really engage children in contemporary or original ways through the artwork.

Children would probably enjoy Amanda Pig and the Really Hot Day, however parents might want to give their children something less mindnumbingly dull and a lot less sexist.

"Even my hair ribbons are hot".......2006-02-24

Poor Amanda Pig just can't cool off. Readers spend "a really hot" day with Amanda. A visit to the garden and being squirted with the hose helps. And drinking lemonade with her friend Lollipop is fun, too. The four chapters in this beginning reader take us right up to bedtime when Dad tells a "cool" story. This easy reader is targeted to children beginning to read independently. 2006 Geisel honor book.

Heat of the Night (Dream Guardians, Book 2)

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Heat of the Night (Dream Guardians, Book 2)
Sylvia Day
Manufacturer: Avon Red
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0061231037

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Hot Days (Weather Report)
Jennifer S. Burke
Manufacturer: Children's Press (CT)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0516230441

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Heat and Lust
J.C.B. Petropoulos
Manufacturer: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Classics | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0847679020

Book Description

J.C.B. Petropoulos examines the description of midsummer in Hesiod's "Works and Days", explores modern Greek agrarian practices and relevant folk beliefs, proverbs, symbols, and songs, and cautiously attempts a "backward extrapolation". With the help of comparative ethnographic models, readers will not only better appreciate the seasonal settings of Hesiod's harvest and its midsummer aftermath, but also will obtain a provocative sidelight into the local song traditions and general lore that underlie the famous passage and Alcaeus's poem.

6 Don Pendleton Super Bolan Titles : Terminal Velocity Resurrection Day Tropic Heat Flashpoint Blowout Dead Center

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6 Don Pendleton Super Bolan Titles : Terminal Velocity Resurrection Day Tropic Heat Flashpoint Blowout Dead Center
Don Pendleton
Manufacturer: Gold Eagle
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

Product Description

multiple books ship as one item. save on shipping/handling charges.

The Armstrong Trilogy: From the Heat of the Day/One Generation/Genetha

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An unhappy family
An unhappy family
An unhappy family
changed my life

The Armstrong Trilogy: From the Heat of the Day/One Generation/Genetha
Roy Heath
Manufacturer: Persea Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0892551992

Customer Reviews:

An unhappy family.......2001-10-30

Sony Armstrong is greedy, dishonest, a philanderer, a social climber, and a generally unpleasant person. His wife Gladys, who is better born, is dim, and more than a little superstitous. Their son Rohan the subject of the second part of the trilogy is self indulgent, and pays for it. The daughter Genetha the subject of the third part of the trilogy takes after her mother, but with everything amplified. All together you would avoid these people if you ever met them. Having said that, the novel does present a picture of British Guiana in the 1920's-1940's with all it's colonial and class related problems, which I found of great interest, and which I believe to be accurate. Having grown up in BG during that period, I was more than a little curious to read how someone else saw life there. I was not disappointed. Roy Heath did a fine job, I'm just sorry he didn't include a character that you could maybe like.

An unhappy family.......2001-10-30

changed my life.......2000-02-08

In brief, I picked up the first of these books about ten years ago after reading a review in the Christian Science Monitor. It literally changed my life. Heath's descriptions of life in Guyana delivered to my imagination the details of my Mother's childhood. These three books inspired me to travel to and eventually live in Guyana where I met the love of my life, my wife. During my travels, I was just as knowledgeable and often times more informed about the sociocultural history of this beautiful country and it wonderful people. Recommended for all of all ages.

Decarburization: The proceedings of the one-day Conference on Decarburization organized jointly by the Heat Treatment Joint Committee of the Iron and Steel ... on October 28th, 1969 (ISI publication 133)

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Decarburization: The proceedings of the one-day Conference on Decarburization organized jointly by the Heat Treatment Joint Committee of the Iron and Steel ... on October 28th, 1969 (ISI publication 133)

Manufacturer: Iron and Steel Institute
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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